November 2009 Archives

When we opened our walk-in hours in October, I was excited to get started, but honestly I didn't think that our service would be very popular and even had doubts about how it would be useful to students with all the other resources that are available. I was really questioning what role we would play. Why would someone want to sit down with another student when they could just go ask a librarian? Do students feel like they need to use the library's website when google (especially combined with googlescholar) can answer almost any question instantly? Despite my initial doubts, I think the PRC program has been a big success.

Since our first 2 weeks, business has really picked up. I've been seeing at least a couple people every session. After students leave, I feel like they have gained new skills that they'll be able to use on their current projects and in the future- even if we didn't find exactly what they were looking for. I feel like I can direct students to the right librarian or other resource if I can't address their research question. Over the past month I've gotten more comfortable working with students and more confident in the research advice I'm giving. I've also realized what areas I'm not able to help students in, and I know when to send them on to another resource.

This was a draft written just after we started our walk-in hours.

We've had a bit of a slow start with our walk-in hours. We've been doing some classroom announcements, and I think those REALLY help! The more people who have our flyers sitting around, the better.

So far I've worked with four students. Three were from freshman writing course and one was a freshman student I have a class with. Three of the four heard about us from classroom announcements. The work that I've done with these students really seems to have helped. When they leave I feel like they could do many of the things we did together on their own. Success!